Bill banning Pride flag passes House

BOISE — The Idaho House voted to advance a new flag bill on Thursday, sending a bill to the Senate that serves as a revised effort from the legislature to bar the Pride flag from being flown in Boise.

House Bill 561, sponsored by Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, expands upon House Bill 96, which was signed by Gov. Brad Little last April. That law prohibits government entities, including universities and public schools, from displaying flags other than the United States flag, the official flag of a governmental entity, the official flags of any states in the U.S., the official flags of any military branches, the POW/MIA flag, or the official flags of Indian tribes.

The bill considered on the House Floor on Thursday is an amended version of legislation Hill introduced to the House State Affairs Committee in February to tighten restrictions on which flags local governments could fly. Concerns raised by individuals who testified and by House members at the hearing led to the addition of several exceptions. 

A key addition to House Bill 561 is a carve-out for the Basque autonomous community flag, following public testimony that the bill allowed only “official flags of countries other than the United States” to be flown on special occasions. Under prior language, Boise, as well as any other city or county in Idaho, would have been barred from flying the Basque flag, as it has historically been done during Jaialdi celebrations. 

The amendment process further loosened the bill to allow flags or banners to be displayed on government-owned streetlights or property adjacent to streets or boulevards, so long as what is displayed is not “political, religious, or ideological in nature.” This change came after several House members questioned the bill's impact on their local communities.

During the prior committee meeting, Rep. Erin Bingham, R-Idaho Falls, said she was concerned the bill would have prevented local communities from posting anything on their lampposts or streetlights, whether that be announcements for local events or banners for graduating seniors of the local high school.

While presenting his revised bill to the House on Thursday, Hill said he intends to have local governments remain neutral about what they fly and to ensure that some groups don't favor others. “This is good for unity, and it's good for our country,” Hill said. 

Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, said he still had concerns about the bill's impact on his legislative district, which includes Bonners Ferry. The city is located about 30 miles from the Canadian border and has flown the Canadian flag for over 50 years, Sauter said.

“I seen no problem having a Canadian flag fly there,” Sauter said, “and neither do the residents.”

Hill said the flag could continue to fly, but only on a limited basis “for special occasions.” To get around this limitation, which is also in Idaho’s current flag law, the Bonners Ferry City Council previously declared a 365-day special occasion honoring Canada, as was previously reported by the Bonner County Daily Bee. 

Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, raised questions about language in the bill, stating, “official flags” for any state in the United States, as well as any city or county, could only be those established before Jan. 1, 2023. Under this stipulation, no county, city or even the state of Idaho would be able to change its flag following the bill’s passage.

Speaking to the reason behind this date selection, Hill said city flags have become a “political enterprise” in the time since. When Rubel followed up by asking whether no city or county could ever change its flag in the future, Hill said, “City flags are not that important.”

In her debate of the bill in its entirety, Rubel said the effort was “transparently” about banning one flag: “a Pride flag flown by the city of Boise by one mayor.” While directly targeting this flag would be unconstitutional, Rubel noted, the result is the legislature “doing wild contortions” to appear to comply with the U.S. Constitution.

“It’s an effort to get around a clear constitutional prohibition on banning one particular viewpoint by one particular speaker,” Rubel said. “And I think this is a very flagrant intrusion on local control. If the people of Boise or any other city are upset about the flag that their city council is flying or their mayor is flying, they have all kinds of recourse.” 

After limited debate, the flag bill passed the House with a 58-11 margin.